Insects have long been known to be a nuisance to humans, and for some insect genera, a health hazard.
Many common types of household insects such as cockroaches, e.g. American cockroaches (periplaneta americana) and German cockroaches (blattella germanica), are classified as pests and significant effort has been made to control or eradicate them. A variety of chemical compounds have been discovered, e.g. N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide, which are efficacious in repelling cockroaches. Such chemical compounds are used in the household by applying or spraying them to surfaces of walls, floors, cabinets, containers, rugs, upholstery and carpeting, and in potential nesting places for these insects, such as inside walls and between floors. Chemical compounds have been used together with hard surface cleaners (EP-A-0619363) and wax floor polishes (U.S. Pat. No. 3,018,217).
It is known in the art that essential oils and synthetic fragrance ingredients (also known as perfume materials) can repel insects. Further, use of these ingredients may be advantageous compared with the use of chemical compounds in terms of presenting lower toxicity to mammals. WO 96/08147 describes an insect repellent composition comprising at least one active ingredient from the group of compounds consisting of: 1,2,3a,4,5,5a,6,7,8,9,9a,9b-dodecahydro-3a,6,6,9a-tetramethylnaphtho [2,1-b] furan (AMBERLYN™); 4-(tricyclo [5.2.1.02.6] decylidene-8) butanal (DUPICAL™); 1-ethoxy-1-(2′-phenylethoxy) ethane (EFETAAL™); acetyl cedrene (LIXITONE™); and propylidene phthalide. The compositions are described as preferably used to repel biting insects, such as mosquitoes, and in particular members of the genus Aedes. 
Perfume materials, or fragrances, with repellent properties to either American cockroaches (periplaneta americana) e.g. as disclosed in WO 00/19822 and Ngoh S. P. et al., Pestic. Sci., 1998, 54, p261, or German cockroaches (blattella germanica) e.g. as disclosed in JP 2207004, are known. However, typically, it is difficult to formulate a complete fragrance which effectively repels cockroaches, particularly German cockroaches, and more particularly, repels both German and American cockroaches, possibly together with other crawling insects e.g. ants.